11/30/2006 @ 5:45PM

Mouse Of A Firm Makes Bid For Euro Disney

Euro Disney has been the butt of jokes for its magnificent losses, but Center-Tainment chief executive Ulf Werneris deadly serious about turning the park into a money-spinning Magic Kingdom.

At least, he seems to be.

In a Paris press conference on Thursday, Werner, dressed in dark suit and bow tie, said that Center-Tainment AG would launch an 11 euro cents ($0.15) per share bid for Disneyland Paris in the coming days, and garner a 50.01% stake in the theme park.

Sounds straightforward enough, though most analysts and regulators are scratching their heads as to how a Swiss company that no one had heard of until this week intends to unseat the management of Euro Disney, and also make the park more profitabile.

Precious little is known about Center-Tainment, other than that it is based in Zug, is listed on the Frankfurt stock exchange as of last September, and was formed “with the sole aim of creating a company able to initiate a share swap offer for Euro Disney’s floating capital.” Its stock also dropped about 75% to just over 5 euros ($6.63) on Thursday.

Even Euro Disney S.C.A. said in a statement that, “Despite our attempts to obtain information from them, we have been unable to secure material information on this company.” The Paris stock exchange watchdog Autorite des Marches Financiers, has just launched a probe into the takeover.

Without naming names, Werner did say that his company had “45 or 46 shareholders,” with the core investor being “a German company.” A Germany company, which had experience in the leisure industry no less.

He was also vague about which lenders might be spearheading the takeover. “It will be a Swiss bank,” he was quoted as saying. “There are several banks … regarding the lead position of the bank, we are still negotiating.”

One would at least hope that Werner’s backers have subterranean pockets. Not only is Euro Disney worth around 350 million euros as of Thursday’s share price of 9 euro cents, it’s also 1.9 billion euros in debt.

Center-Tainment on the other hand, has a market value of 130 million euros, and no known cash flow statement or profit and loss accounts to speak of.